Radio frequency identification (RFID), applications of which have been increasingly studied in recent years, refers to an advanced technology by which a target object is analyzed at a long range by using a predetermined frequency band such that dozens to hundreds of information is read. The radio frequency identification requires a sticker form of tag which includes a microchip therein, and is attached to a product, and a reader or an antenna, which is capable of recognizing tag information.
As product information is grasped through the RFID, an image of a cashier scanning a barcode attached to the product will disappear. Every time a shopper passes through a check-out, with purchasing products left in a shopping cart, costs of the purchasing products are accurately recognized so that the shopper may save time.
As soon as the product is sold, sellers can receive warehousing and shipping information of the product, thereby easily achieving expiration date management and stock management of the product. Moreover, since location tracing of the product is possible, after selling the product, the product may be prevented from being lost during the distribution process, and may be prevented from being stolen during transport process. Although the existing barcode and magnetic card have a problem in that a recognition rate is gradually deteriorated as time passes, in a case of the RFID, that's an unnecessary problem.
In general, although a refrigerator is used for preventing and delaying the decay of foods, since various items and quantities of foods are stored and kept in the refrigerator, and if close attention is not paid, the foods are kept in a form of being disorderly stacked in a receiving space of the refrigerator, it is difficult to identify the food items without searching through the receiving space of the refrigerator, and the foods frequently pass their expiration date, rot and are discarded.
While the foods (agricultural, marine, livestock products, and processed foods) are distributed from a production step to a consumption step (in a case of a consumer, when the consumer purchases the foods in a store or keeps the foods in the refrigerator at home), when a smart phone, a handheld terminal such as PDA, or a kiosk PC contacts the QR code or the RFID sensor tag, food checkers, consumers, and sellers can directly identify information such as history information, a distribution temperature history after harvest or production, a quality index, freshness, residual expiration date, and a time when the foods are most delicious.